How Can People Hate Other People They Don't Even Know?

[Ping Tung]

34. The most important aspect of hate is fear.

Late into my 4 year employment in the USMC Vietnam replaced Cuba as the main bogeyman that we were supposed to kill. I had been paying attention to the international news and read up on the history of Vietnam. There was much talk about from the bosses and we were being prepared by lectures about the Dirty Commies, falling dominoes, and every crime imaginable by "Them" the new enemy.

It was at the rifle range that the fact that some of the targets were silhouettes of men. And it struck me that these were actual people that I was supposed to kill.. People I didn't know. People that didn't' know me. People I had nothing against. People I might like if I met them. Why in the hell should kill such people just to shine up LBJ's anti-Commie creds?

It was my first real steps to becoming a pacifist.

My enlistment was up 6/29/65. They asked me to re-enlist, offered me another stripe, and being stationed wherever I wanted. All I had to do was become willing to kill people.

Nope. I added my opinions to the Gunny Sergeant trying to get me reenlist of extend my enlistment.

I didn't kill anyone. I had some friends whose enlistments weren't up. Their names are on that wall they built to salve their consciences.